Sunday, December 19, 2010

Auntie Katie picked up this too-perfect onesie a couple of months ago for Lucy. I was saving it for her 12 week photo, but when I realized that her 12 week birthday fell on Christmas Eve, I moved its debut up a week. I took a series of pictures of her like I always do, hoping to get one good shot and while I was uploading them onto the computer I realized she was kind of quiet. I peeked in on her in the living room and she was asleep! Modeling is not an easy job.

Christmas is quickly approaching. The shopping is nearly done, decorating has been done for a while and even the Christmas cards are all mailed. Speaking of the Christmas cards...I went out on a limb and designed my own cards this year. I attempted to print them at a couple of places and was disappointed to find that no matter what I did or how good the preview looked online, the photo always cut off part of the text. So, I am sorry to have wished you all a merry holiday "seasor" - since 1/2 of the 'n' in season was cut off. How embarrassing.

Years ago I spent months making a felt applique stocking for Benjamin. It was a tedious process, but I always vowed that I would do the same for any of our other children. Well, once again it took me weeks and weeks, but I finished Lucy's stocking yesterday. I honestly don't know what to do with my time now that it is done, but it feels great to see both stockings hanging proudly on the mantel.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

This weekend we braved one of the worst drives up to the Twin Cities that we've ever had (it was snowing, it was rush hour and the roads were not cleared at all). It took us almost 4 hours to get to my parents house. It turned out to be worth it though because we had a lovely weekend with my parents and Benjamin was able to visit with the man in the red suit twice. The highlight of our weekend was Breakfast with Santa at Macy's Sunday morning. This is the fourth year Benjamin has been able to experience this event (once in IL and three times in MN) and it gets more and more fun every year. He's at that lovely age right now where he is old enough to truly look forward to Christmas, but he also is innocent enough to still believe in Santa and all of the magic of the season.

Lucy had her two month regular doctor's appointment today. We were excited to see how much she's grown. It turns out that she's still just a little bit of a thing as her length (20 inches) is under the 3rd percentile and her weight (9 lbs, 11 oz) is in the 22nd percentile. However, her rate of growth and the proportion of her height to weight is fantastic, so her doctor took her off of the extra calorie formula. Gone are the days of microwaving water to heat up her pre-mixed, cold formula! We are very pleased. The doctor was very impressed with her sleeping habits. She has been sleeping through the night from about 8:30pm-6:30am, which is way beyond what she should be doing at this age.

Saint Nicholas visited our house Sunday night and the kids opened their stockings Monday morning before school. Lucy got some Christmas pj's and some car seat toys and Benjamin got a "Santa Rocks" shirt, guitar socks and the Toy Story 3 DVD. Saint Nick's Day is a tradition from my family that we've continued since Benjamin was born. Not many people celebrate it, especially non-Catholics, but we enjoy the holiday!

Friday, December 03, 2010

Lucy has finally began moving up into size 0-3 month clothes, so we're able to try out some of the "outfits" we have versus just footie p.j.'s all the time. Here she is in one of my favorites. This would probably be a great St. Patrick's Day outfit, but for the time being it will be our Week 9 outfit. Benjamin and I filmed a short video of Lucy yesterday. You can see how in tune with her world she has become and you can almost see a big smile happen. She's cooing a lot now and we are all just loving it.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Eight weeks have just flown by and Lucy is growing and getting more fun every day. She is becoming much more interested in the world around her - sometimes more interested in it than in eating her bottle. Yesterday, Lucy experienced her first Thanksgiving and her first holiday with the entire Schmitt family. Andy and Jennifer hosted the event in their home where we all enjoyed very tasty food. Lucy was happily passed around between Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles all day. Benjamin happily played with his cousins all day. It was a very nice holiday!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

Big brother Benjamin got in on the photo shoot this week. At first when we tried to take the photos, Lucy was a bit unhappy and cried anytime I set her down on the blanket. After a nice long nap on Mommy's shoulder (while I caught up on my book reading) and a big tasty bottle, she was ready to try again. I think the result is too precious!

Saturday, November 06, 2010

There is really not much to say about this week. Lucy's doing well and we've all recovered from our crazy past weekend. Some of my cousins from Illinois (Brad and Carla, Roland and Cicely) visited this Thursday and were able to meet Lucy. It is a shame we don't live closer to each other because it is really fun spending time with all of them.

I don't know how much Lucy has grown officially, though I'd estimate her size to be just around 7 pounds by now. She's still in newborn clothing, which is a shame because we have so many cute outfits just waiting in the closet. I know she'll get to them eventually though.

Benjamin and Lucy are still bonding. He gives her a bottle every now and then and really enjoys coming home from school and telling her about his day. I have not ever heard him resent her or utter any negative words about her being here. He truly is in complete love with her and it is wonderful.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Lucy was baptized at our church this weekend where she was surrounded with family. It was a lovely day and our little gal was perfectly behaved throughout the whole ceremony. It was great to have so much family in town and we were happy to have the chance to spend a little extra time with some of the out-of-towners the evening before.

Benjamin rocked his Zombie costume this Halloween. He even wore it while running his very first 5k (3 mile) race this past weekend. He is certainly taking after his Daddy in the running world and just loves running races. As a parent, there is no better feeling in the world than watching your child feel so incredibly proud of a major accomplishment. This is exactly what Mike and I experienced as they crossed the finish line together. He is already talking about his next race -- a true runner indeed!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Happy Halloween from Familie Schmitt!

Lucy is now one month old, which is so hard to believe. It is taking me forever to do this post because I keep stopping to snuggle with her. It is impossible to resist! She loves to lay on my shoulder and I love snuggling with her little head. It doesn't help that she still smells like the oil used at her baptism yesterday (will be another post later today), which smells so good. She is such a good baby. I am amazed at how calm she is most of the time - the exceptions being when she's hungry, poopy, or has a bad case of baby hiccups. She adores her bouncy seat, especially now that we've fixed the vibrating function. She also seems to be completely in love with her big brother as she perks up every time she hears his voice or sees his face. Being an only child and totally unfamiliar with sibling relationships, I am so intrigued by the bond that they'll have someday. I can't believe it is already forming even today and I can't wait to see what it becomes.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Lucy had a weigh-in this week at her doctor's office and she's coming in at a whopping huge 6 lbs, 13 oz. The high calorie formula is making her gain weight like gangbusters. We're not sure we like how fast she's growing, but the doctor wants to keep her on that formula until her 2 month appointment. Our first week at home without Mike was pretty uneventful. Benjamin had Friday off of school, so he was excited to spend the day with Mommy and Lucy. We had a couple more visitors this weekend, but otherwise it has been quiet around here. However, that is about to change. We have a busy week and weekend coming up with a running group event at our house on Thursday night, a concert (and our first night out since Lucy's arrival) Friday night, a 5k race on Saturday for Benjamin, Lucy's baptism on Sunday plus Halloween. We have lots of relatives coming from near and far for Lucy's big event and it will be her chance to meet many of them for the first time. It should be a crazy, but fun and memorable weekend!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Lucy is now two weeks old and it is hard to believe that the time has flown by. Mike's last day home with us was today. He will go back to work on Monday leaving us girls to ourselves. I think we'll manage. :-)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

I am a little behind on this, I know. Lucy is just over one week old now. Although having her here feels so right and makes our family so complete, it hardly seems real that 10 days ago I was still pregnant and in labor trying to get her here. I am so thankful for how easy the experience was for me this time around. Benjamin's birth was tough on my body and it took a very long time for me to recover and to feel normal again. So I have been taking full advantage of how good it feels now and have been enjoying every single second of my time with Lucy.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Phew! Now that we have our routine down and finally have caught up on some sleep, I can play catch up on updating the blog and uploading photos.

Lucy Jane was born on Friday, 10-01-10, at 6 days past her due date. Labor began Thursday evening at a very appropriate location - the three of us were enjoying an Oktoberfest celebration at Whistle Binkies with a lively polka band entertaining us. Lucy must have been motivated by the music of her German people because my contractions started up before we even ordered our food. After dinner we came home and I tried to maintain labor, but the contractions fizzled out eventually so I went to bed. Around 11pm they started back up again so I headed to the couch and began timing them as I let Mike rest a bit for the adventurous night ahead of us. By 4am I decided that things had progressed enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, so I called my dear friend, Lora, to come over and be at the house with Benjamin and Mike and I set off for the hospital. I overestimated what I was experiencing because the hospital checked me when we got there and I was still only 1cm dilated. They sent us home to rest and to wait for labor really begin. By 8am the contractions were unbearable, so Mike drove Benjamin to school and came back to get me to the hospital. Sure enough I was right and was dilated to 4cm, enough to get me admitted and start receiving an epidural. Here is where things got crazy:

It was a swift and easy delivery. Our biggest surprise though was when the doctors weighed the baby and we discovered she was tiny at only 5 lbs, 4 oz. Throughout our hospitalization the doctors did many tests on Lucy and all of them came back saying that she was healthy and ready for the world. She did, however, have some trouble eating at first so she was admitted to the intensive special care nursery where she began to eat like a champ. We happily took her home on Monday after only a short stay there.

There are some more details to Lucy's birth story which I haven't included here, but one of us will be back to update more soon.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Nope, no baby yet. As you can see, our list of birth date predictions is dwindling down (see sidebar on the right with the pink text). Even my own prediction has been come and gone. 3 more days until our due date. But, maybe there is some hope for something happening over the next day or two.

Two major astronomical occurrences will collide in the next 24 hours. The autumnal equinox, which rings in the beginning of fall will happen at 10:09pm tonight. The harvest moon, which is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox will officially be full at 4:17am tomorrow.

Full moon + the beginning of fall? Could mean lots of babies being born. We will just have to wait and see!

Of course, Benjamin's due date actually fell on the summer solstice (6/21/05), but he didn't make his appearance until SIX days later. But, ugh, I won't mention that...

Friday, September 17, 2010

One of my favorite design websites, Ohdeedoh.com, recently asked for user submissions about homemade costumes. I couldn't resist sending in Benjamin's robot costume from last year and today they featured it!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Mike completed his first Half Ironman triathlon distance (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run) on Sunday at the Square Lake Triathlon near Stillwater, MN. He and his brother, Joe, both finished strong at the race. Benjamin and I along with family spent all day on Sunday watching and cheering on the athletes. When Mike came past to finish his last 3 miles, Benjamin joined him for a short run. I just had to get a photo of this adorable sight:

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Benjamin had his first big official day of school on Tuesday. He is now our big Kindergartener and is SO excited to be in this year of his schooling. He is still at the same Montessori school as last year, but is now in his Leadership year. He'll be spending lots of time setting an example for and helping the younger kids in his classroom. He also will be taking specialty classes throughout the week in movement, art, music and Spanish.

It was a big day for all of us - a momentous occasion that we've been looking toward for a long time! You can see the excitement in his face and if Mike and I were in the picture with him, you'd see us beaming. We are so proud!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

In the interest of making a smooth transition for Benjamin's new role as a big brother, I took him to Color Me Mine to paint something for his baby sister's nursery. The choice was difficult, but he finally settled on an adorable cupcake container. He did a great job of painting it and we are excited to pick up the finished product this weekend.

We have quite the comedian in our house lately and here are some samplings of his wit:

While watching the Emmys Sunday night, Benjamin said in a very matter-of-fact tone, "Wait, aren't there people coming over to watch this with us?!?" (in reference to the fact that we usually throw an Oscars party every year)

Due to allergies, Benjamin has been rubbing his eyes a lot. I've told him to stop hundreds of times, but he always says that he can't help it. Today I told him, "Well, okay - but then you have to suffer with the pain." He said, "If I have pain, I need a sleep number bed."

Monday, August 16, 2010

We had the privilege of hosting our two nephews, AJ and John, this weekend while their parents were away having fun at a concert in Chicago. We had all kinds of plans for fun things to do with them, which were unfortunately thwarted because John woke up sick Saturday morning. We were able to squeeze in some fun time when he did start to feel better though. We lunched at our favorite restaurant, visited the "really fun park," spent some time watching bits of Star Wars, had a visit from Uncle Andy and Auntie Jennifer, saw the animals at Oxbow Park/Zollman Zoo and had loads of fun playing around the house. It was a fun cousins weekend!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The baby's room is nearly done. I suspect we are about 95% done with it and the only things left are very minor additions for decoration and finishing the crib skirt. You can read more about my inspiration here, but my main goals for the room were to give it a light, airy feeling and to not fill it with theme-y clutter. I have to say that I am very much in love with this room and can say with certainty that it has filled every goal of mine. I really hope our baby girl loves it as much as we do.

Now for the details:

I made the mobile from the Ten Photo Mobile at Target. The "ornaments" were made out of some girly cardstock that I found at Hobby Lobby. I got the idea for the ornaments from here.

The crib sheet was purchased from Carousel Designs, which is (in my opinion) the best baby bedding site around. I bought all of Benjamin's bedding from there and really couldn't be happier with the company. The crib skirt is homemade and the fabric (Amy Butler Fresh Ivory Poppies) is from the Cracker Jack Shack. The crib is a hand-me-down from my parents and was not only the crib Benjamin slept in, but also his Momma!This artwork is something very much treasured by myself and Mike because it was purchased while we were living in England. It is a print of a painting of one of our favorite spots in Winchester, where we lived. The painting kind of served as inspiration for the room's colors and bicycle-related items. The other wall hanging in the room with the aqua bicycles came from Hobby Lobby waaaay back when we first found out we were pregnant and even before we knew what we were having. I spray painted it aqua to match the crib sheet.The items on the shelves are just a rag-tag collection of miscellaneous baby things that will likely change as we get closer to her birth. The one thing on the shelves that was purchased specifically for the room is the "Keep Calm and Ride On" card. I do plan on painting the frame or buying one that matches the room better - someday. The shelves are from IKEA.

I purchased the birds from Target, but since they only came in black I had to diy them a bit. I spray painted them ivory, which worked sort of okay. They just rest on push pins, so they're very easy to hang, which was nice.

Monday, August 09, 2010

Erin and Dennis welcomed their newest family member, Makenna Geralyn, to the world on July 8th. We traveled to Milwaukee this weekend to celebrate her baptism and for me to officially become her Godmother. It was a beautiful ceremony and we had a great time visiting with family at the event and the dinner afterward.

The next day Erin took us to the Wisconsin State Fair where we checked out the animals, indulged in some delicious food and were able to spend some quality time with her and the girls. It was a great day and a finish to a great weekend!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Ever since returning from our vacation, I have been hard at work preparing the nursery for Baby Girl. I've patched up wall holes, painted the inside of the closet, began work on repainting a bookshelf, made many purchases at IKEA and beyond and most recently - began spray painting some cute wall decor. Here is a sneak peak:

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Benjamin has been attending "summer school" (I put that in quotes because it is much less school and much more "fun time".) at a local public school here. He really loves the program and they've been doing some really neat things with the kids. Last week the whole program put on a talent show where each classroom performed a dance, song, skit, etc and some of the more talented kids did something on their own. Mike and I were able to sneak away to watch and we were glad we did because it was quite a hoot! Benjamin's class - "Bouncing Bunnies" (kindergarteners and first graders) - did a cute little dance that I was able to get on video. He's the little guy in the brown shirt and headband toward the middle of the pack...check out his moves!

Thursday, July 08, 2010

It is official - Benjamin is all settled in his new room! He has spent two nights in his much bigger and more robot-ey room (and is currently on his way to a third night). I haven't snapped any photos yet of the new digs, but I am very happy with how it is turning out. I have a few more pieces to hang on the walls, which will have to wait a short while until I can find some time to sit down and paint the art myself. While Benjamin has been quick to adapt to the change, it has been harder for me. The new room is located on another level from where we sleep, so I have had a hard time adjusting to the possibility of not hearing him should he wake up. I'm trying out the baby monitor now just in case, although he is not aware that we are listening.

Of course, now that we've moved the big boy into his new room - this means that I am able to begin work on the nursery! And I am pumped! We have big plans.

I was excited to find this link on a baby blog that I read regularly: http://www.copycatchic.com/2010/05/pottery-barn-kids-dream-rocker.html. The PB Dream Rocker is well...a dream! When researching the nursery it was definitely at the top of my wish list, but with its almost $1,000.00 price tag, I knew it was not to be for this Momma. So instead I went with the much less expensive, but nearly as cute and comfy Dorel Rocking Chair at Walmart. Well, what do you know - this website suggests the same trade off. My taste has been validated! :-)

Monday, July 05, 2010

I'm still a bit tired from our busy weekend, but here's just a post of what we did over this holiday weekend...

Friday - All 3 of us had the day off (Fridays are my regular day off), so we used the time to wrap up some home improvement projects, including finishing the paint job in Benjamin's new room. He should be ready for the big move within the next few days!

Saturday - We departed Rochester late morning to meet Dan and Katie at Rock Bottom Brewery for a pre-game lunch. We finally were able to use the tickets I purchased in March for our first Twins game at the new Target Field. It was amazing. The game was great for the first seven innings, but the Twinks ended up losing to the TB Rays even after Thome hit several home runs to beat Killebrew's record. Benjamin loved his first outdoor baseball game.

Sunday - Mike and I rose very early to drive into Minneapolis for the Red White and Boom Half Marathon. The race began at 6:30am, so I dropped Mike off at the start line and met up with Andy and Jennifer who were cheering in support of Jennifer's friend from Nebraska. Just as Mike approached the 3.5 mile marker where we were cheering, the heavens opened up and a torrential downpour started (no exaggeration!). It rained throughout the entire race, but we were still able to cheer the runners on at 2 locations and the finish line. Mike had a great race and we even dried out after all of that rain!

We ended up back at my parents house to celebrate the holiday with a nice boat ride, naps, bonfire and s'mores in the evening. We didn't make it out to a professional fireworks display, but could see (and hear!) all of the private fireworks around the lake.

Monday - We spent the day with the Schmitts in celebration of Grandma Cindy's 59th birthday. The family met up at a park for a short picnic between the rain storms and then some relaxation at Andy and Jennifer's house. We headed back to Rochester before dinner and are now trying to soak up the last few minutes of the weekend.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

We are now taking bets in the Great Labor Debate (aka when Jessica has the baby). Please leave your bet in the comments on this entry. If you're reading via Facebook, you'll have to visit http://myfamilieschmitt.blogspot.com to comment.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

We are officially parents of a five year old. Benjamin hit the big number on Sunday and we celebrated with a party on Saturday. It was a crazy birthday weekend.

Ten little friends (+ 2 Aunts, 3 Uncles, a Grandma Chris, a Grandpa Ed, a Dad and a Mom) joined Benjamin at Quarry Hill Nature Center for a robot celebration. We had an ice cream sundae bar and the kids learned all about dinosaurs from a resident naturist. It was a great party. After everyone had their fill of sugar and nature, the family came over to our house for more gifts, some World Cup soccer and a BBQ.

As it goes every year, I had a very fun time preparing for Benjamin's party. He picked a robot theme and I was lucky to find some things online at Birthday Express. I found the clipart online for the invitation, which I used again for the goodie bag tags and personalized candy wrappers. Instead of handing out a goodie bag full of junky cheap toys, I decided to make a s'mores bag with some giant marshmallows, graham crackers and a Hershey's bar that I personalized with a robot wrapper. Benjamin has an egg allergy and the recipes for eggless cakes and cupcakes are not only less then tasty, but cake making also somehow manage to fill me with unwanted stress right before parties. So we instead had the ice cream sundae bar which I labelled with robot-themed topping tags. I also made Benjamin a personalized shirt with the invitation clip art and a big number 5. He was so proud to wear it.

On Sunday we greeted Benjamin with a traditional breakfast in bed of pancakes with cinnamon and sugar on top. After taking him out for his first spin on his new bicycle from Mom and Dad, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bert came over to spend a couple of hours with the birthday boy.

I've been neglecting my regular blogging duties to prepare for the party and to begin work on Benjamin's new bedroom (which is going very well), so I haven't had the opportunity to include information on Benjamin's latest track runs. Last week was the All Comers Mile race, which Benjamin and Mike braved 90 degree heat to run together while Grandma Chris, Grandpa Ed and I stayed in the shade to cheer. Even after completing the mile run, Benjamin went on to win first place in his age group for the 50 meter and 100 meter races. Now that he's a full year older, this week he will be running with the five year olds and will have a couple of cousins accompany him on the track. AJ and John will be trying out their first track meet tonight.